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How to create winter self-portraits in the home studio using a can of fake spray snow

While winter portraits might not be on most of our minds with Summer about to officially kick in for the Northern Hemisphere, it’s certainly been on the mind of photographer Hamza Sleem, who created these amazing winter portraits in his home studio with the help of a cheap can of artificial spray snow.

Hamza’s home studio setup is fairly simple, with just a Canon EOS 1200D and 18-55mm kit lens, a single strobe and a backdrop. But his ingenuity shows that you can get some very captivating shots with very little gear if you know how to use it well and think a little outside the box.

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How to take creative portraits with Plexiglas and a single light

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There are numerous setups you can create with just one light and take stunning portrait photos. Well, unless you’re in this unilluminable room. But if you add a sheet of Plexiglas and some water to the equation, the possibilities for creative portraits largely expand.

In this video from Adorama, Pye Jirsa shares a simple setup that will get you tons of creative studio portraits. With just one strobe, some Plexi, and a spray bottle, he builds up the set to show you how to take interesting foreground bokeh portraits.

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How to shoot a clean and simple coloured fill portrait in the studio

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Sometimes you just want a clean and quick setup to start a shoot off the right way. Sure, you may have a ton of creative ideas in store for later on in the day, but they may be new ideas you’ve never tried before or they may be more experimental. If that’s the case, I always find it smart to start a shoot with a tried and true setup that’s not too tricky to do, quick to set up and provides great shots each and every time.

That way, the team knows that whatever happens from here on out with the more experimental work, we’ve already bagged some killer images and everybody is positive about the setups to come.

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Lighting setup: Indoor swimwear shoot

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Shooting swimwear outside in natural light is nearly always the best solution, after all, the bright, crisp sunshine is an easy-win when it comes to making swimwear look good. But what if an outdoor shoot simply isn’t practical or even possible due to location and of course weather?

In this article I’ll discuss a simple indoor setup that can be created in almost any sized space and with standard kit. This setup isn’t trying to synthesise daylight indoors like I’ve done before, but it is about recreating that feeling of an outdoor shoot and I’ll share a couple of tricks I employ to do just that.

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Watch this complete guide to shooting subjects on white seamless backgrounds

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White seamless background photography has been a staple of both portraits and products, amongst other things, for decades. It’s one of those things that almost all photographers (at least the ones who end up doing it for money) will probably learn to do at some point, just so that if they’re asked for it, they know how to do it. But it’s a style that I’ve seen so many photographers struggle with.

The concepts involved in photographing a well-lit subject in front of a pure white background are fairly straightforward, but there are lots of different things that come into play when you try it and things to think about that can easily catch you out while you’re learning. In this video, Ed Verosky walks us through not only the process of shooting on white seamless but the potential problems that can come up, too.

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Create this amazing colourful effect entirely in camera using just 3 lights and gels

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How do you make white light? No, that isn’t a trick question. Most of us are fairly familiar with using different colour temperatures and even playing around with gels but if you get a little bit creative you can use gels and lighting to make some really interesting effects.

Commercial photographer Ron Hautau created these dynamic portraits using a relatively simple set-up and some basic physics. So how did he do it? We caught up with Ron to find out how.

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Here are three ways to add a second light to your flash setup for shooting portraits

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There has been a lot written (and put onto video) over the years advocating the use of a single flash and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re often packed with wonderful advice that’s geared towards either educating those who’ve never used flash before or helping those with far too much gear to really limit themselves in order to master that most basic of techniques.

But once you’ve mastered lighting up your subject with a single flash, how do you go about adding another? Why would you even need to do so? Well, in this video, Gavin Hoey walks us through the potential problems of only using a single light that can only be overcome by adding another and offers up three different ways we can add a second flash to our setup in the studio.

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This crash course teaches you everything you need to know about using flash for portraits

Flash is almost an inevitability when it comes to portraits. At some point or another, you’re going to find yourself frustrated with the “natural light” and you’re going to want to either try to overpower it or complement it to improve its looks or you’re going to give in completely, head indoors and go for a more studio-style setup away from the wind and rain and crappy weather. Whatever the reason, it’s as inevitable as Thanos.

But where do you begin? What gear do you need to get started? What do all the terms mean? How do you use them? What are modifiers? Key light? What? Well, all these questions and more are answered in this hour and a half long video from photographer Ed Verosky. It’s a complete crash course on using flash to shoot portraits, although much of what’s said applies to flash in any context.

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How to set up and recreate caustic lighting for portraits in the studio

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Don’t be alarmed! Yes, the title of this article may seem a little bizarre, no it’s not helping my SEO, but I assure you that there’s actually a scientific reason behind its ‘caustic’ name.
For many years I’ve played with the idea of recreating various lighting looks that many of us may know and love from the natural world around us. Sure, we can buy fancy lighting modifiers that all serve a purpose, but sometimes their look can be a little too clinical, and frankly boring. Yes, once again I’m looking directly at you, softbox users. I guess we all start somewhere though ;)

Now that I’ve ostracised half of my readers in the first paragraph, let’s see if Jake’s latest DIY lighting modifier is actually any good!

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How to shoot long exposure portraits combining flash and continuous light in the studio

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Sometimes it can be great to flex your skills and show off your lighting prowess, but we can often run into the danger of the image being more about the lighting technique rather than the look of the final image itself. This is something I always try and hammer home when I’m teaching new techniques.

Is there anybody here old enough to remember the horrendous HDR portraits of the early 2000s? The images were all about showing off the latest HDR technique rather than the subjects themselves and the results were nothing short of terrifying. Too young and have no idea what I’m talking about? Just Google HDR portraits and you’ll see what I mean.

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